What sort of player are you???

The Bartle Test
(MMORPG players)

A player personality analyzer that classifies you as an explorer, socializer, killer or achieve. Originally designed for MUD (multi-user dungeon) participants, it remains relevant to new virtual worlds and MMORPGs. This is an updated version of the Bartle Test, the format and questions remain the same, the wording has just been updated to keep it relevant.

FPS Quiz
(Multiplayer First Person Shooter Players)

Based on the format of the famous Bartle Test, this test applies to multiplayer FPS players, and classifies players as Recon, Shock Trooper, Support and Commander.

RTS Quiz
(Real Time Strategy Players)

Are you a Turtle, Strategist, Commander or Rusher?

"I HAVE NO WORDS"

This week’s reading is a two parter, but unlike a TV series, there is no “to be continued...” so if you wish to read the full text this week then feel free. The text is…

Costikyan, Greg "I Have No Words & I Must Design: Toward a Critical Vocabulary for Games" Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings, Tampere: Tampere University Press, June, 2002

(Greg Costikyans keynote speak from the 2002 Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference all papers from the conference can be found here)

And we will be looking at the first section pages 9>26 (up to the “LEBLANC’S TAXONOMY” section). This text although long is a great read and shouldn’t be a struggle. We will be feeding back on our thoughts in the session so it is imperative that you read this text before the session.

For those that are keen on the term gameplay and want to read some more then this article is good - Attempting to Define Gameplay

The Narrative Design Exploratorium

Here is a link to a site I accessed through the IGDA website. It's a great little resource called The Narrative Design Exploratorium. For those on the Narrative Skills module, this is a tool you should all be taking advantage of. I also think it is going to be useful to anybody with even a passing interest in game narratives and game writing.

So check it out and if anyone finds an article of particular interest, post it here and let us know about it and I will do the same.

Cheers all.

There and Back Again

This week we will be reading "There and Back Again: Reuse, Signifiers and Consistency in Created Game Spaces" by Peter Berger. The text is taken from the book Computer Games as a Sociocultural Phenomenon: Games Without Frontiers - War Without Tears. The essay looks at mapped spaces and signifiers.

The book is an amazing collection of essays about games and game culture and way published earlier this year. It is expensive (£48) but i will be researching how to get the library to buy in copies into Salford as we will be using it as a key text in the module next term (H&A4). A sample of the book can be found here, it has the books contents and one of the essays "The Aesthetic Vocabulary of Video Games" by Joost van Dreunen, which is another great essay that you should look at.

Searching for Articles

I thought that i would put something on the blog to help you go through step by step how to find articles through Google. It's a tool/skill that I stumbled upon, and not a lot of people know it, so i thought I’d write a small tutorial for you and it will help you do your research and make sure you end up with some good outcomes from your search... (hopefully)

A lot of papers from conferences and articles from journals get thrown up onto the internet, hidden away under the piles of trash. Sometimes people put things up as a form of storage so they don't link from their website to it and it sits on a server as a back-up, Academics are notoriously unorganised so the tech savvy ones know this is a good way to keep things safe. GOOGLE BOTS AND SPIDERS FIND EVERYTHING, and a lot of people don't realise that even if it's not linked to it's still there to find, it just takes the bots longer, that's their job, to trawl the internet finding stuff. Most of this stuff gets .pdf'd to try and cut down on size and to try and stop people copying it (which doesn't work unless your really clever about it)

OK... so without further ado how to use advanced search in Google to get good results...

Instead of just using the normal Google search bar and button on http://www.google.co.uk/ click on advanced search

Enter in the search terms, i usually use the "all these terms" box unless I’m looking for an article i want that i know a sentence from and I’ll put it into the "exact words" box. The exact words box is great if you have a text that you think people might have quoted from in their work and you want other opinions or someone might be writing or have used the same paper. Some lecturers also use this to see if your work is plagiarised as an initial search before we start feeding your work into the system and bring out the big guns (software that sniffs out plagiarism). Plagiarism is easy to spot, Lecturers have probably read the work you’re copying from and it's easy to spot the change in tone or language you’re using. Lecturers are sent on training courses to sniff it out... don't do it, you will get caught.

Anyway, enter you search words and in the "file format" drop down box, pick "Adobe Acrobat PDF" and click the advanced search button

You can skip all that though and streamline your search by typing "filetype:pdf" after your search in the normal Google search bar or website. If I’m trawling through looking for lots of different stuff I’ll just cut and paste that bit, keep it on my clipboard and just paste it after each search.

Hope this is helpful and it should improve your research skills and what sort of work your referencing.

Maybe we can start sharing links through the blog that you have found using your newly learned skills...

Wii-Mote Hacks

This is non-module specific content...

I thought i would share this with you all after a discussion that i had after the class on Thursday with one of you (who will remain nameless). It is only 5 mins long and a must see for game developers...

Johnny Lee: Creating tech marvels out of a $40 Wii Remote

The wii-mote seems to have boundless possibilities with how we interact and interface with computers and blows open the some what limited capabilities that game controllers had in the past. It is an area of research for me at the moment and thought it might interest you as well.

Here are some other wii-mote hack projects i am following at the moment...

Wii-mote finger tracking
Wii-mote finger tracking Youtube link

Wii-mote controlled robot
Wii-mote controlled robot Youtube link

Wii-mote dance suit
Wii-mote dance suit Youtube link

Leisure Suit Larry to Exploit Wii Technology - The new Leisure Suit Larry to use new wii-mote interactivity

Wii + Second Life = New Training Simulator Real-world simulations like these are perfectly suited to Nintendo's Wiimote, says MIT research fellow David E. Stone. In fact, he claims the motion-sensitive controller is "one of the most significant technology breakthroughs in the history of computer science." Say what?

Share the wii-mote hack links in the comments...

Literary Theory and the Game

We have looked at the benefits and limitations of using Literary Theory to investigate games and their narrative structures.

Three key areas that we have looked at are:

• Poetics
• Hermeneutics
• Aesthetics

And defined these terms in very simple terms as

• Poetics – The study of literary conventions and rules
• Hermeneutics – The study of literature’s meaning, what signifiers mean within the text
• Aesthetics – The study of literature’s effects

I think that a review of Genre construction is important and it is important to understand how the poetics of videogames plays a part in their construction.

Further Reading on Games and Literary Theory

Kücklich, J. - Literary Theory and Computer Games

Ryan, M.-L. - Immersion vs. Interactivity: Virtual Reality and Literary Theory

Rockwell, G. -Gore Galore: Literary Theory and Computer Games (you may need to login to Athens in order to view these)

Widget Crazy

I have added a lot of new functions to the Blog, some maybe useful, some may die a death... depends what you find useful and what you will use.

I have added

• A button so that you can send and view contents of the blog on your 3G mobile phone/iphone
• RSS feed
• A widget so that I can upload the powerpoints from the sessions to slide share and they show up on the blog
• A function so you can receive updates to the blog via email (if you subscribe).

I have also converted the PA2 form to my server space as a .pdf and linked to it in the links section in case you need a digital copy of it or additional copy. Only time will tell if these new functions work and will be helpful to you all.

(If you know of any other additions you want for the blog just add them to the comments section of this post, URL's to the widget etc. sites would be helpful if you have any suggestions or comments)

A Short and Simple Definition

I wanted to write a post to share the link to the .pdf of the paper we looked at in class so that you all had a digital copy of it as well as the printed copy I distributed. I think that some of the debates that were raised within the session where very useful, but when we review the text again next week I think we need to keep more closely to arguments drawn from the text, this will help us to learn more from the work and how to read a text.

Esposito, N. A Short and Simple Definition of What a Videogame Is, DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views – Worlds in Play, 2005

I would like to pose a few questions for you to think about when you look at the paper for Thursday, you don't have to answer them but it might help you think about the text.

• How do you feel about the definition? Is it too rigid, too loose, does it work?
  
  
• How useful is it to have a definition of what a videogame is?
  
  
• On page 4, there is a quote from First Person that states “Game designers are much less interested in telling a story than in creating a compelling framework for play.” As game designers how do you feel about this statement?
  
  
• Within the conclusion Esposito states that “…knowing what a videogame is, [it] is obviously very useful to know what a good videogame is.” What do you think of this? Do you think this is true, I would pose that having a strict definition is very useful to know when a videogame is good at being a videogame but can not tell you if it is a good videogame. This might seem like semantics but I think that this is a very key point.

Semiotics: in and out of a game space

Thursday’s session will focus on structural linguistics, semiotics, semiotic structures and semiotic domains in video games, we will be looking at a couple of texts to help us understand what semiotics is and what it might offer you in terms of game analysis.

One of the main texts we will be using is “Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art” by Scott McCloud which we will be going through in the session. Hopefully it will help us crack the nut of what semiotics is and how it works.

One of the sections we will be looking at focuses on a piece of art by René Magritte entitled Ceci n’est pas une pipe (trans. This is not a pipe)

You can view these pages online here

You might be interested in this page as well which is a very short piece by Michel Foucault about Ceci n’est pas une pipe which might be useful in helping you further understand the picture.

McClouds book has become a seminal writing in the practice of sequential arts (comics) and looks at how we understand comics, investigating the structures and tools of the comic book to open up the realm of the sequential arts.

Some more of the book that we are using can be found here (which is a power point presentation on digital comics)

I have dug out some interesting links for you that you might like to look at for further understanding of the book

How comics can invigorate your storytelling

iFanboy – video review of the book Understanding Comics

Further Reading on Games and Semiotics

Chandler, D. - Semiotics for Beginners

Lindley, C. - The Semiotics of Time Structure in Ludic Space As a Foundation for Analysis and Design computer game research , Game Stdies, Volume 5 Issue 1, October 2005

Behrens, J. Frezzo, D. Mislevy, Kroopnick, M. and Wise, D.- Structural, Functional, and Semiotic Symmetries in Simulation-Based Games and Assessments

Friedman, T. – Semiotics of SimCity

Lemke, J.- MULTIMEDIA SEMIOTICS and DIGITAL GAMES

Neiva, E. and Romano, C. - The Semiotic Immersion of Video Games, Gaming Technology and Interactive Strategies, The Public Journal of Semiotics Volume I No. 2 July 2007